“We are really welcoming this initiative….We are really putting everything we can to support this initiative,” UNICEF India Representative Louis-Georges Arsenault said in New Delhi.

Noting that hygiene and sanitation in many Indian districts, particularly in Uttar Pradesh are “very weak,” Arsenault expressed hope that the new initiative would help spread awareness among people about hygiene in their surroundings.

He was reacting to a question on UNICEF’s role in cleanliness and the new initiative of the government.

UNICEF officials said that the organisation’s long standing support for improving water supply, sanitation and hygiene stems from a firm conviction and based on sound evidence that these are central to ensuring the rights of children.

UNICEF supports the Centre and State Governments in developing and implementing a range of replicable intervention models for sanitation, hygiene and water supply.

On October 2, Modi launched the ambitious Swachh Bharat campaign that was joined by Chief Ministers, lawmakers and prominent personalities from various fields, along with lakhs of countrymen in a drive that is expected to cost nearly Rs, 2 lakh crore.